• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Duffy Law Office, PLLC

Helping Families Preserve Their Wealth

  • Home
  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • About The American Academy
    • Advantages of Working With Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
    • Speaker Connection
  • Services
    • Asset Protection & Business Planning
    • Elder Law & Medicaid Services
    • Estate and Gift Tax Figures
    • Estate Planning Services
    • Family-Owned Businesses & Farms
    • Financial Planning Assistance
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA & Retirement Planning
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning
    • SECURE Act
    • Special Needs Planning
    • Trust Administration & Probate
  • Reports
    • Advanced Estate Planning
    • Basic Estate Planning
    • Estate Planning For Niches
    • Trust Administration
  • Resources
    • Client Resources
    • Consumer Resources
    • Published Books
  • BLOG
  • Contact Us
  • (563) 445-7400
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Asset Protection: Yet Another Reason to Fund Your Work Retirement Plans

Dennis D. Duffy · Mar 22, 2012 ·

You may know that you dont pay taxes on contributions to your work retirement plans; you may even know that retirement plan assets grow tax deferred. But, today, we talk about a third reason to fund your work retirement plans: Asset Protection.

First, work retirement plans refer to your retirement plan offered at work. Examples would be a 401k, 403b, pension plans (defined benefits plans), and profit sharing plans (defined contribution plans.)

Second, asset protection means taking steps so that a creditor (i.e., someone who sues you) cant take your work retirement plans. They have asset protection thanks to the federal ERISA statute.

  • A statute is a written law.
  • ERISA stands for Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

ERISA protects your work related retirement savings, so they cant be taken in a lawsuit or bankruptcy.

Fund as much of your assets into your work retirement plans as you can afford and is allowable under federal law. If you own your own business, there are ways to set up retirement accounts so they can be super-funded.

  • Be sure to consult with a qualified estate planning attorney to determine how you can best protect your retirement assets.

In addition, while traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs do have asset protection, they do not have the same level of asset protection as plans at work. The thought is to fully fund plans at work first; then, look to funding IRAs.

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Dennis D. Duffy
Latest posts by Dennis D. Duffy (see all)
  • Attorneys Want to Help - December 14, 2016
  • Trusts and the Estate Tax - December 14, 2016
  • What Is a Third Party Special Needs Trust? - December 14, 2016

Asset Protection 401k, 403b, Retirement Planning

Blog Subscription

Where we are

Duffy Law Office, PLLC
1840 E 54th St
Davenport, IA 52807
United States (US)
Phone: (563) 445-7400

Opening hours

Monday8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Tuesday8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Wednesday8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Thursday8:30 AM - 4:30 PM

Map

duffy_hmpg_map.png

© 2023 · American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc. | Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Sitemap | Contact Us